How This Startup Used A Robotic Arm To 3-D Print A Bike

Since 1998, every bicycle used to win the Tour de France has had a carbon fiber frame. There are plenty of reasons the material keeps arriving in first place: It’s incredibly lightweight, durable and dampens vibrations for a smoother ride.

While these features are prized by the pros, the average hobby cyclist also wants a workhorse that’s capable of withstanding bumps and scrapes. But manufacturing a high-quality carbon fiber frame is time consuming and labor intensive — and this ends up reflected in a bike’s price tag.

To make a carbon fiber bicycle, workers typically wrap individual layers of carbon fiber saturated with a glue-like resin around a mold of the frame by hand. The frame then has to be placed in a vacuum-sealed oven to bind the materials together.

Automating this trial-and-error manufacturing process would do wonders for the affordability of carbon fiber bikes. Just ask Arevo, the Silicon Valley startup that created the world’s first 3-D printed carbon fiber bicycle at a cost of only $300. According to the company’s new CEO, Jim Miller, formerly Google’s VP of Worldwide Operations, Arevo’s “secret sauce” is its proprietary software that takes the guesswork out of building carbon fiber components.

“Our software allows you to experiment with different designs, shapes, sizes and materials — and it let’s you pressure and stress test before ever having to print,” he explains. “What that means is we don’t print multiple prototypes, iterate and try again, which saves time and money.”

Arevo is using the bike to demonstrate its unique, three-pronged approach to 3-D printing. The process starts on a computer screen, where parts are designed and tested. Next, the company uses a “deposition head” attached to a robotic arm to carry out the printing itself. The technique, which Arevo calls “True 3-D printing,” allows material to be layered in any direction to create parts of almost unlimited size. This is because the free-moving robot printer is not constrained by the dimensions of a printing unit.

“The vast majority of 3-D printers on the market today are small-format units that print material in layers, stacking each layer on top of the other,” Miller explains. “This is really only 2-D printing with a 3-D byproduct.”

The third component of Arevo’s method is the material itself. It’s a composite recipe made up of a thermoplastic with carbon fiber embedded inside. The company says the material is five times stronger than titanium at approximately one third of the weight. During the printing process, a special laser is used to deposit the thermoplastic, which takes just a few seconds to cool down.

Selling bikes or bike parts was never part of Arevo’s business plan. Its technology is perhaps best suited to industries such as aerospace and automotive, which need lots of high-strength, lightweight carbon fiber parts. However, the bike has sparked interest from the cycling world, and Miller says Arevo plans to partner with one or more bicycle manufacturers to make its frame available to consumers before the end of this year.

With investors including In-Q-Tel — the venture capital firm that aims to develop cutting edge technologies for the CIA — it’s clear that industries are already thinking of their own uses for Arevo’s solution. The company recently picked up $12.5 million in a Series B funding round and in the near-term, Miller is focused on selecting the best partners and applications to help it grow.

“Our goal is to give companies the ability to manufacture better, stronger products faster using our technology,” he says. “My dream is to have a number of Arevo robots cooperating together to fabricate an aircraft wing or fuselage right there on the factory floor. A decade or so ago this would have seemed like science-fiction, but with Arevo’s approach this is within our grasp within a few years.”

In the meantime, bicycle commuters should rejoice. With the help of an affordable carbon fiber frame, the journey to the office could soon look and feel like riding in the Tour de France.

I'm a writer and reporter based in London, England. My work looks at how advances in science, technology and policy are impacting modern industry. I launched my career as a B2B journalist covering the marine and energy markets for international trade titles. I’ve now turned ...